WWII Marathon #7: Objective, Burma (1945)

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A wearisome trudge through the Burmese jungle, this strictly one-note action film is exasperatingly overlong and listlessly-paced as it clocks in at over 140 minutes, during which Objective, Burma never once becomes convincingly empathetic or genuinely riveting.

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Errol Flynn plays Capt. Nelson, the man in charge of leading a stealth attack on an enemy radar position in preparation for the invasion of Burma. When a Japanese force threatens the landing of the rescue plane, the squad is stranded in the Burmese jungle with a 200-mile hike back to base.

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So what begins as a standard-order (albeit capable) action film-cum-history lesson quickly, and detrimentally, turns into a grubby, perpetual survival story, rendering a twice-a-week supply drop into the most fascinating moments of this otherwise tiring journey.

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Matters are worsened by Flynn’s Capt. Nelson, who is a disciplined, subordinate hero of the worst kind – that is, a pure, uncomplicated and inescapably minor protagonist. Flynn was always best as the charming, self-confident swashbuckler with an irresistible smile, but here, under all of the grim and dirt, his charming disposition and overwhelming presence is all but mute. [C-]